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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

This past weekend was a rough one over at our house. We were getting things ready for a great Memorial Day weekend when a fog of sickness rolled into our place.

Usually with three kids any sickness that occurs bounces around like a ping pong ball between all three of them and you spend a few days following the "contaminated" one around with a vomit bowel, Lysol, and medicine.

Fevers, meltdowns, whimpers and everything that goes with sick kids will usually happen.

This time everyone got it at once. It was as if someone ordered a round of "Puny-ness" for all my friends!

On Sunday, my youngest son, Blake was having some major meltdowns and it seemed like the only way to help him was to just hold him close.

I honestly believe that the one thing that made these meltdowns so bad was the shirt that he was wearing.

The shirt?

Yep!

Across the front, emblazoned in LARGE letters was the phrase:

"TOUGH LIKE DADDY"

Now normally this would be a shirt that I would love to see him wear, but not on this day and especially not like this.This is the kind of shirt that makes a dad smile when they shake off a tumble to the floor or a "head encounter" with the corner of the coffee table.But in a day like this?I found myself telling him, "Dude, you are making Daddy look really bad! Change your shirt, or change your disposition."It reflected on Daddy.I know he was not feeling well, but the thought of what I had told him stuck with me when I read a very familiar passage.

"The LORD is my shepherd;..." ~Psalms 23:1

I was reading
Psalms 23 and quite honestly it caused me to do a bit of soul searching.

We
know this Psalm mainly from funerals and the occasional message in church, but
it is more than just a “Funeral Psalm”. This was a testimony from a man who had
been a literal shepherd and despite all of the frustrating qualities that he
had found in sheep he cared for, he found many similarities between a sheep’s
characteristics and his own. This is actually the testimony of anyone who
claims Christ as the Savior and Lord of their life.

The term, "Christian" is a very loosely thrown around term and in some cases it can be worn like a status symbol. It means, "Little Christ" and this was a derogatory remark that people threw on the disciples of Christ because their actions, words and way of life reminded people of the Christ. This was not something people called themselves because they did not feel worthy to carry His title.

The name of
this blog is, “The Man and the Wall” not “Sheep and their ways” so I will not
go into massive amounts of detail on the similarities of sheep and the
spiritual walk of the believer but I will state the most obvious one as I see
it displayed in the twenty third Psalm and verse one.

“The Lord is
my Shepherd…”

The Sovereign
God of the universe is the one who cares for me and directs me.

This is an
identity claimed bond between the sheep and their shepherd. Like a family tie.
The actions, behaviors, and words of one indirectly or directly reflects upon
the other.

I read this
and meditated on it and instantly the mental image of a fourteen month old in
the middle of a massive meltdown wearing a shirt proclaiming “I’m as tough as
Daddy” came crashing through the door of my mind.

Let me ask
you the question that I had to confront myself with when I read this passage.

“How do you
represent that statement with the words and actions that are projected to those
that God has placed in your life at
home as well as out and about?”

We all claim
God as our shepherd but really that is more than just putting on the title
“Christian” or telling people “I’m like Daddy in the way that I ________?”

A sheep that
is spiritually sick and malnourished does not speak well of the shepherd. A
sheep that is constantly choosing to find things to complain about and ways to
rip into other sheep does not represent the shepherd very well.

Does your
Shepherd (Daddy) really provide for you that poorly? Is your Shepherd (Daddy)
really that dense when it comes to the purpose of your life? I think that now
more than ever it is important for us to ask this question of ourselves.

We love to
proclaim, “Greater is He that is you than He that is in the world” when things
are going our way, but that statement is true when God’s purpose in our lives
crosses over the boundary of what we consider to be fair. God’s
purpose, not His fairness determines the circumstances of our life.Just in case I
wrote that too fast, let me re-write that statement:

“GOD’S PURPOSE,
NOT HIS FAIRNESS DETERMINES THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF OUR LIFE”

If we were
operating on God’s fairness, then Jesus would have never gone to the cross and
we would all be in hell at this very moment. That would be fair, because it
surely wasn’t fairness that hung Jesus on the cross. It was God’s purpose for
Jesus to be the Lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world,
and it is His purpose that dictates the circumstances in your life and in mine.

His
resurrection meant that we have life! His Holy Spirit that is within the
believer is the powerful testimony that the “Words we wear on our shirt that describe our
similarities to Daddy” are in fact correct.

Paul put it
this way, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” and this
is more than a suggestion. That is the very key to our actions, words, and attitudes
being now able to match what is written on the shirt!

I want to
represent Daddy well because I now operate on a power that is not my own. It is
as it has always been before I even realized it, about Him and not about me.

We can truly
say and live the words:

I
AM LOVE LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM LONG SUFFERING LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM JOY LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM PEACE LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM GENTLENESS LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM GOODNESS LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM FAITH LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM MEEKNESS LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM TEMPERANCE LIKE MY DADDY

Let’s take it
a bit further shall we, because if God’s Holy Spirit indwells us we can truly
reflectively wear the shirt that says:

I
AM FORGIVING LIKE MY DADDY

I
AM PATIENCE LIKE MY DADDY

You can go
down the list on this and to doubt the ability that God says you now can be these things is
arrogance and unbelief. It is in a sense saying to God, “I know that you say
that it is now possible through you to live this way, but my circumstance is
somehow greater than your ability in me to do this.”This morning, before you go out Christian, what does your shirt say? Is it a true reflection of Daddy? It can only be a true reflection through the life surrendered to Him!Climbing with you,~Dan

Saturday, May 25, 2013

I guess I always have, and it has nothing necessarily to do with the sermon preparation and delivery of the pastor (Ok, for one it did) and it has nothing to do with the people that go to my church. I heard a story one time about that one and it made me laughOne balmy day in the SouthPacific, a navy ship espied smoke coming from one of three huts on an uncharted
island. Upon arriving at the shore they were met by a shipwreck survivor. He
said, "I'm so glad you're here! I've been alone on this island for more than
five years!"The captain replied, "If you're all alone on the island why do I see THREE
huts."
The survivor said, "Oh. We'll, I live in one, and go to church in
another."
"What about the THIRD hut?" asked the captain.
"That's where I USED to go to church."

I have a problem with church because I have the mind of a cartoonist. I see a person and I instantly break their posture, facial expressions and mannerisms down into shapes on the tablet sketch pad of my mind.

If you ever see me laughing as I talk to someone, please understand that I am fighting for my sanity with an internalized war to keep from mentally cartooning the person I am speaking with. I blame my dad because I have a love for the bizarre from him. I really do fight it, but for an ever running mind and imagination church can seem like a cartoonist's mental buffet. You may have shared a church service with me and are wondering even now, "Was I cartooned? Did he just cartoon me?" The answer is, "Probably yes".

So words that are spoken around me evoke certain images. For example, whenever I hear the word heart, I immediately think of a house. For this blog post I would like to give you my brain for a minute. Please, don't thank me and yes I know that you would have preferred to just take a solid sock on the jaw and be done with it but really, it won't be that bad. Are you ready?Ok, the word is... Heart.

Our heart is like a house and since it is in fact our house, we have the choice about what we
furnish that house with. We can choose to fill it with things that honor
Christ, or we can fill it with things of the world.

My
wife and I used to be slightly addicted to watching this show some time back called
“CLEAN SWEEP” it was one of those “Let me have your house overnight while I
show you what you could have if you weren’t such a slob yourself!” shows.

We used to watch it all the
time and I remember that there was a bubbly host, several designers, and some
organizers; one of my favorites was a guy with a kind of British accent. There
were some carpenters, and then there were the homeowners. The host of the show and his crew completely took over your house and your life and gave you a newly redecorated room by the end of the show. Now I know you get a
remodeled room out of the deal, but the price you pay is just a little too much
in my book.

They trot into your house
with there TV cameras, and present your poor up keeping abilities to the rest
of us in the world so that our up keeping abilities don’t seem nearly as shabby as yours.

They then show us how in twenty
four hours they can do with our house, and personal lives what we have been
unable to do since we were born. They clear out all the unnecessary junk.

The first thing they do is
put everything in the house on the yard and the reason for this is so that you can better see what all you
have.

This alone can be a shocker. Just
seeing all the junk sitting there and asking yourself, “Did I really have all
this stuff in my house?”

A

lmost always, these people
ultimately discover that if they just cleaned out the stuff that did not really
matter, they could have the house that they always wanted to have.

I am amazed at how much junk
that people have.

One of the organizers refers
to the sweep as “PURGING” .The designer will pull the
owner of the home to the yard, and make him or her justify why certain things should
stay, and why certain things should go.

They show you w

hat is important to have in
order to have the house the way you always wished it could be, and what is causing it to not be that house you always wanted it to be.

One person had big pink rabbit chairs for there kids (who were now married and living our of state)

One person had 32 pairs of shoes. It was really sad when they were exclaiming that ”I have shoes that I
have never even worn…”

Some people had furniture, exercise equipment, clothes, bikes, and electronics that have never even used before.

Just clutter that has all
that time been piling up to the point that they no longer have any room to have
what they have always wanted…a neat, clean and organized house.

I used to love watching people part
with things they didn't need. I have seen people cry,yell, pout,throw things,argue and make
fools of themselves.

However, when the moment arrives to
see the redesigned rooms they gasp, and cry, and jump up and down with
excitement over the clean, neat design they now have. They hug and praise the
same organizer that they have been screaming at.

They had the beautiful room
long before the designer came along; they just needed an organizer to help them
“PURGE”away the
junk from what really mattered.

Almost all of the people on
the show would say basically the same thing.

“I NEVER THOUGHT I COULD HAVE
A ROOM LIKE THIS!!!”

Now my house is not the
largest house in the world, and there are a lot of things that I would not mind
having in that house, but the realistic truth of the matter is that my house is not
the largest house in the world.

The Bible makes reference to
our heart, and the importance of it (Not the organ version of it, but the house version of it)

"Keep thy heart with all
diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." ~Proverbs 4:23

This is not talking about a magazine collection, it is speaking about the things we go through in life and the importance of protecting our heart because issues of your life will be settled in your heart, and if we fail
to protect it we are certain to fail in our Christian life.

"Eat thou
not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty
meats: For as he
thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart
is not with thee." ~Proverbs 23:6-7

What is in
your heart is certain to come out, like a submarine it has to surface some
time, and when what is in your heart does there is no hiding it.

When you speak what has been
buried in your heart will surface to reveal what has been in there all
along…What do you talk about?

I see our heart like a house.

It is not the largest house in the world so
when it comes to things to furnish that house with we should be cautious.

Space is a precious commodity.

When we choose to put things
in, that means there are things that we have to choose to leave out.

Every one of us has this picture of what a walk with God should be like, to pray and really feel as though God stops the traffic in heaven to listen, and wants to talk back to us. We imagine being the strong Christian, and standing for God when those around us don’t.

We have a picture in our mind about how awesome it would be to have a heart for God. But we look around our heart and we see what we have, a cluttered mess, and we think. There is no way I could ever have the Christian life I would like to have, so why even try. After all, that must just be for the designer Christians.

And our heart becomes even
more cluttered than it was before.

Paul seemed to know what it
was like to have a clean sweep in his heart, because he talks a little bit
about it in the book of Ephesians.

"If so be
that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;And that ye put on the new man, which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun
go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but
rather let him labour,working with his hands the thing which is good, that he
may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that itmay minister
grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day ofredemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger,
and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you." ~Ephesians 4:21-32

I don’t know about you, but
if I am saved I am going to enjoy it.

Not a Holier than thou, but
happier than thou attitude. For the longest time I was convinced that being a Christian and having a sense of humor was a bad combination. The only time some Christians laugh is if it is at someone else's expense.

I would not want to sit
around the house moping through my Christian life because it is not where I
wanted it to be.

“Bro.Dan, is your Christian
life where you want it to be?”

NO, but that doesn’t have to
stop me from trying to get it where I think it should be.

The Christian life is like a
hike remember? It’s a journey

If you look at your heart
today and see a cluttered mess with bad thoughts on the walls, wrong words
littering the room, ugly gossip and bad attitudes strewn all over the floor, or
perhaps your vision of what a heart for God should look like is no where close
to what you want it to be.You may be in need of a spiritual...

“CLEAN SWEEP”

DRAG IT ALL OUT SIDE.

Some
times we don’t even know what we have in the house, or how cluttered our heart is until we
just get honest with ourselves. What have you been hanging on to?

I heard a question on the radio today that made me think.

"What is it that you know you should throw away, but you probably never will?"

What a great question for us to get honest with the Lord and ask.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." ~Psalms 139:23-24David
was asking God to take a good look with him to see if there were some things
that needed to be purged.

The
Holy Spirit will show us the things that need to go, but we must be the ones
to ask God to help us “purge”.

Once
we can see what is cluttering up our heart, it makes it easier to see what
needs to go and what needs to stay.

ASK YOURSELF IF YOU REALLY NEED IT.

Some
times when we can see things for what they are we have a chance to see if it is
really what we want taking up space in our heart.

Gossip is not just letting people know what is going on. It’s a fire that
destroys without thought, and is difficult to stop.

"Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer,
the strife ceaseth." ~Proverbs 26:20

LYING is not just fibbing, or telling a story.It is something that God
hates.

"These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands
that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief,A false witness that speaketh lies, and he
that soweth discord among brethren." ~Proverbs 6:16-19

Ephesians
4 tells us to choose things to occupy the space that will help, not hinder.

If
I am going to have a clean sweep in my Heart, get the walk with God that I
want, have the Christian life that I want to have, it requires a daily purging.
A set aside time when I Drag
it all out to God, Ask
if I really need to keep it, and finally...

TRUSTTHE DESIGNER.

The thing to
do is to ask him to help us, and then keep pushing for the goal.

Choosing the types of things
to furnish our heart with that will matter.

It is a process for sure, but it is worth it to be able to fully identify with what Jesus says in John 10:10.

"I came to give you life and life more abundantly"

It is our identity in Christ that when it is fully understood allows us to see the rooms that we always wanted to have. He is a great designer. Keep that in mind as you take some time even today to just get honest with Him about the things that you have allowed in your house.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

I was driving home in my truck with my very young (at the time) son and we were having quality "Cab time". Not sure what that is?

"Cab Time" is coveted time in my heart. The cab of my truck during these times is a no holds barred conversation pit. If there is something on my kids mind they have the opportunity to get it out in the open in the cab of my truck. We talk about anything and everything. It can be pretty intense and if you have problems with breaking things down multiple times in a row, then "Cab Time" is probably not for you.

We have discussed the differences between hot wheels cars and matchbox cars (Yes there is a major difference) , time travel, hurtful words, personality disorders of Zebras in their migrating patterns, and basically anything and everything a child can think of.

As we have taken this time I am always amazed at the different burdens and thoughts that my kids can carry on their hearts and minds. Once my three year old daughter needed to know what made bird poop white. This was a major concern with her and it was while we had an in-depth discussion about the internal plumbing of North American whooping cranes that I was reminded of how special this little girl truly is and how beautiful her heart is!

This night was different. This "Cab Time" was a time stop moment.

My family had recently been to Illinois for a family trip and had the opportunity to have spent some time with some of my wife's family. My wife had taken the kids with her to visit with her mom's sister, "Aunt Marge". It was during this visit that Clark had gotten to be re-acquainted with his Aunt Marge.

She was a saint who loved children and found tremendous delight in being surrounded by family that she could pour out her love on. When she saw my kids that night they had dinner, she took complete ownership of making sure that they knew how much they were loved and that they knew that she believed that each of them were so smart and beautiful. Aunt Marge was in the closing years of her life and her health was slipping away from her.

We had received word that "Aunt Marge" had graduated this world to be part of the kingdom that she had longed to see and I had no idea that Clark was deep in thought about this event, so as we began our trip home, "Cab Time" came to life.

"Daddy", He asked. "I really liked Aunt Marge, and she made me feel so very important. I am really sad that she died." He began to cry as he then asked why God made people die if He loved them.

There is not one adult that I know of that if given the chance for "Cab Time" with their heavenly Father would not ask the same question in their own unique way.

In fact, I remember one night not too long ago receiving a call from a parent whose teenager was stoned out of their mind and near collapse. As I sat next to that teenager on the couch they looked at me through tears and asked, "Is this all there is? Why does God allow so much pain in my life?".

Life.
It is in the book of James that I found the answer for this question.

"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." ~James 4:13-15I looked at this verse wrong for so long. It was always presented to me in the light that I only had so much time to do as much as I could for the Lord. While it is true that we only have so much time to serve the Lord, this is not what the verse is saying.

James is making the point that it is not guaranteed that we have a tomorrow and that living in the future is in fact wasting the present. Living in the future is living in fantasy. It may or may not happen the way we imagine it to be. Likewise, living in the past is also wasting the present. The past cannot be changed or corrected. Paul counted the past accomplishments as dung. All of us would change something about our past, but we cannot.

That leaves only the present.

Life in general is referred to as a vapor. Just a wisp of air.

As Clark struggled to express his feelings to me about how sad he was over the loss of his re-acquainted new friend, my gaze rested on a cord that was on the floor of my truck.

It was a little brass tipped headphone jack for my phone. I picked it up and told Clark about the verse that you and I just looked at.

"Clark, do you see how this cord has a metal part to it?", I asked?

"Now just imagine that the dark part of this cord stretched on and on and in fact it never stopped. It just went on forever. This metal part is the part of the cord that we get to live here on this earth. It is just a vapor of time we have been given to glorify God."

The fact is that most people have absolutely no comprehension of eternity. Life for them here is all that there is. Just the metal piece.

They spend all of their time and energy and most of the "Metal part" working for the last 16th of an inch of "metal part".

Everything that they do is centered on that little bit of life that they can see.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

~Matthew 6:19-21

We get it backwards really fast.

Then He drops the big bomb!

"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven,shall henot much moreclotheyou, O ye of little faith?Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the dayisthe evil thereof." ~Matthew 6:25-34

He has just been approached about settling a legal dispute. He informs the hopeful lawsuit happy man that His purpose was not to handle legal disputes and then draws a parable about a man that lived for himself and trusted in what he had for security. He lets them know that the purpose for the "metal part" of the cord of life was to seek God.

Life is a vapor.

It is just the metal part of a never ending cord.

This life is not about us. It never has been. It has always been about Him!

Yes, we get to enjoy it, but the "metal part" is not about us. It has always been about Him.

The "Metal Part" is our gift from God and it is and it is our opportunity to surrender to Him the one thing that we will not have the ability to give Him after we meet him.

Monday, May 20, 2013

When
I was growing up it always seemed to me that around our house, nearly every physical
problem that arose always seemed to be summed up with the statement,

“Well,
we just need to go get your eyes checked.”

It
really did not matter what the situation was, the bottom line diagnosis across
the board was an eye exam.

“But
mom, the car rolled over my foot!!!” or “But he fell out of a tree!!!” the
answer was the same. “Well, we just need to go get your eyes checked.”

Please
understand that what I heard my parents say as a kid and what they actually
said were two different things. It seemed to me as if that was always the “thing
to do”.

I
always fought getting my eyes checked because I just knew that if I had ever
went to the eye doctor I would leave there with a pair of six inch thick
lenses.

I would argue with her that an eye doctor was similar to an oil change
station. “Mom, you can never go into an oil change place without them printing
up a list of everything that was minutes away from breaking down on your car.
They are there to sell hoses, clamps, and gaskets. An eye doctor is there to
sell glasses. There in no one who ever just walked in and walked out with a
cleared chart. They will find something wrong.”

I
was a kid. Kid’s reasoning can stay with us as adult because kids grow up to be
adults. Just because a person grows in age, it does not mean that their
understanding in certain areas will mature. I think the thing that always
rattled me the most about the eye doctor’s office would be the machines they
had.

Psalms thirteen
plays out very much like a patient’s visit to the eye doctor’s office.

King David
had eye trouble. He was sitting in The Eye Doctor’s office and He was asking
God to help him with his vision.

“How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou
hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in
my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?” ~Psalms 13:1-2

David is struggling
to resolve some issues in his life and he felt completely overwhelmed. David
was a man after God’s own heart because David was after God’s heart. He was
consumed with discovering God’s heart.

Isn't it funny how fast things that seemed clear at one time can get blurry?

He is
bringing his frustrations to God and as he fills the chart he then asks
something very intriguing of Him.

Meditating means to think about in
great detail. Think for a minute about the Mercy that God extended to you in
your life when He reached down into your life through the offering of His son
Jesus.

“The greatest problem we have is not our
circumstance. The greatest problem that we have is thinking that our
circumstance somehow negates God’s purpose in our life.”

Romans 8:28 tells me that God works
ALL things for my good even if I cannot seem to see it at the time that I am
going through it.

The first setting toward identifying
corrective vision is to meditate on God’s mercy. David then goes on to another
setting.

MEDITATE ON GOD’S SALVATION.

I can just see David’s face after
the “Salvation lens” clicks into place. His entire focus has now shifted from
his troubles to entirely be able to focus on God. Notice his remarks as he
leaves The Doctor’s office.

“I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with
me.” ~Psalms 13:6

David’s
song of woe completely changes into a song of joy!

HE is now
able to focus on the things in life that had become blurry to him. God’s love
for him and God’s care for the circumstances of his life.

I made an
eye chart to help remind myself about God’s presence when I begin to lose
focus. I placed it in my work area, because that can be a place where a man’s
focus can become “blurry in a hurry”.

It seems
as if people just cannot seem to resist taking an eye test when they walk by
one of these things. In fact, several people took the time to stop and begin
self testing their vision on my homemade sign. They would get to a point and
say, “I can’t read any further.”

I would
reply, “You need to keep moving closer to the source until you can read the
message.”

They would
scoot closer and as soon as they got the message of the eye chart they would
smile and without fail say, “Thanks, I really needed that today!”

We all do,
so I decided to post it here for you to take as well, because things can get “blurry
in a hurry”, and if we are going to express the indwelling Christ to those
around us properly, we need “Corrected Vision.”

I am
sounding like my mother here, but it does not matter what pain and circumstance
is going wrong in your life, “You need to get your eyes checked!!!”